M-commerce virtual cash system, method, and apparatus

ABSTRACT

A virtual cash system, method, and apparatus has an account record containing a record of money amounts associated with a wireless device and a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting to the wireless device predetermined information from the account record. Cash amounts can be spent from the account record directly from the wireless device via information derived from the wireless device via a bar code on the display, a short range radio signal, a light beam, or the like. A different security code is generated for each account transaction for verification.

BACKGROUND

The term “m-commerce” is beginning to find meanings in wireless mobilecommunication environments that are analogous to “e-commerce” solutions.An increasing number of m-commerce solutions are emerging in which awireless device may be used to transact certain commercial transactions,such as simple financial transactions like store couponing, credit cardtransactions, automated clearing house (ACH) funds transfer transactionsused like a check with bank routing information, and the like.

The term “wireless device” herein means cellular, cordless, PersonalCommunication System (PCS), or other types of wireless telephonedevices, pagers, wireless personal digital assistants, notebookcomputers with wireless access, or any other wireless device, two-wayradios, walkie-talkies, or other type of communications transceiver, ormobile stations (MS), regardless of whether they have valid subscriberidentification module (SIM) or UTMS subscriber identification module(USIM) identifiers. Wireless devices are becoming so widespread it isestimated there will be about 1.7 billion mobile phone subscribersworldwide by 2007. In fact, recently, wireless devices with limitedtelephone capabilities have been made available for even grade-schoollevel students.

At the same time, card-like devices, herein referred to simply as“cards,” are finding increasing use to make life easier for individualsand merchants in an increasingly mobile society. Cards come in manyforms, such as those having a stripe of magnetic material formed on aplastic base or substrate, those having an embedded integrated circuitwith memory capabilities, and the like. Examples of cards in widespreaduse include credit cards, debit cards, telephone cards, cash cards, andgift or general purchase cards, generally useful at a particular storeand which are now sold in kiosks, grocery stores, and elsewhere forvarious other stores, such as hardware, electronics, florists, and soforth.

Because of the ease with which cards may be used, they are oftenpreferred by merchants as a way to accept payment for services andmerchandise. In some cases, cards may be preferred, in fact, even toreceiving cash payments, for many reasons. Cards generally result inautomatic payments directly into an account of the merchant withoutrequiring the handling of cash and the attendant problems associatedtherewith. By using cards, merchants do not need to provide as high asecurity level as would be required if large amounts of cash were kepton the premises. The use of cards also increases the accuracy of recordkeeping, reduces change-making errors, and, with the present cardinfrastructures in place, reduces the time required to handle cashtransactions. The use of cards also simplifies record keepingrequirements for most commercial transactions.

In these environments, what is needed is an expansion of m-commerceapplications using the card technologies and infrastructures, and morespecifically, an expansion of m-commerce technologies to handle orreplace cash and card transactions.

SUMMARY

A virtual cash system is described that has an account record containinga record of money amounts associated with a wireless device. Atransmitter wirelessly transmits to the wireless device predeterminedinformation from the record which represents cash amounts that can bespent from the record directly from the wireless device. The system mayinclude a security code checking apparatus that can verify a differentsecurity code received from the wireless device with each transactionregarding the account record.

Additionally, a wireless device is described that has a display screenand a receiver for wirelessly receiving account information indicating acash amount that may be spent. Means are provided for displayingavailable cash information on the display screen sufficient to enable atleast a portion of the cash amount to be spent. According to oneembodiment, the information on the display screen includes a bar code.

Also described is a virtual cash system for use with a wireless devicehaving a display screen and a receiver for wirelessly receiving accountinformation representing cash amounts that can be spent directly fromthe wireless device. The system includes an account record specifying acash amount associated with the wireless device that can be spent, atransmitter for wirelessly transmitting the account information to thewireless device to enable a user determined portion of the cash to bespent directly from the wireless device. An apparatus is provided forreceiving spending information from the wireless device directing theuser determined portion of the cash amount be debited from the accountrecord. At least some of the account information may be displayed in abar code on the display screen, and the apparatus for receiving spendinginformation may be a bar code reader.

A method is also described for operating a virtual cash system. Themethod includes wirelessly transmitting to a wireless device informationconcerning a funds balance in a money account to enable a user tospecify a portion of the funds to be spent directly from the wirelessdevice as cash. Information is read from the wireless device thatenables the money account to be identified, the money account is debitedfor the specified portion of the funds balance, and the informationconcerning the balance in the wireless device is wirelessly updated. Theinformation read from the wireless device may include a bar code on adisplay of the wireless device that enables the money account to beidentified. The information may also include a security code thatenables a funds balance in the account be verified.

A method is also disclosed for operating a virtual cash system. Themethod includes maintaining a money account containing funds specifiedby a user of a mobile device and wirelessly transmitting to the wirelessdevice information concerning the funds. A direction is received from amerchant to debit a specified amount from the funds, the directioncontaining information received from the wireless device identifying themoney account. The specified amount is debited from the funds andcredited to an account of the merchant. The information received fromthe wireless device identifying the money account may be informationreceived from a bar code scanned by the merchant from a display of thewireless device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a financial transaction system havinga wireless device by which cash payments can be made or by which indiciathat provides a virtual cash equivalent can be displayed.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the interrelationship among variousactions taken by a customer bank, a customer, a merchant, and aprocessing center in conducting an m-commerce cash or virtual cashtransaction.

In the figures, like reference numerals are used to designate like orsimilar parts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

According to a broad aspect of one embodiment of the system, method, andapparatus described herein, a wireless device is provided by which cashpayments can be made or by which indicia that provide a virtual cashequivalent can be displayed for use in making cash payments, without theattendant problems described above of handling cash itself.

Because some overlap exists in definitions, for ease of description, thewords “money,” “currency,” and “cash” are used herein with the followingmeanings.

Money means something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, ameasure of value, or a means of payment. “Money” is used synonymouslyherein with “funds.” Examples of money include the basic concept ofsomething of value represented by dollars and cents, pounds andshillings, yen, pesos, and so forth, as well as book or ledger entriesrepresenting the same by which financial transactions may beaccomplished by respective debits and credits. Additionally included areinstruments that are payable on demand, such as checks, or the like.

Currency means something that is in circulation as a medium of moneyexchange. For example, currency includes physical one, ten, hundred, andso on dollar bills, one, five, ten, fifty, one hundred yen coins, and soforth.

Cash means either ready money or ready currency. For instance, cashincludes checks and currency that is presently in hand.

Additionally, the term “virtual cash” herein means an indicia, like abar code, a radio or a light spectrum signal, or other machine readableentity or form, that represents or is immediately useable and acceptedin place of cash in a transaction in which money is exchanged for goods,services, or other purpose. Virtual cash does not include credit cardsor other transaction forms in which a promise to pay or repay in thefuture is exchanged for goods, services, or other purpose. Virtual cashis not intended to imply that the money represented thereby is not realor hypothetical; however, the money represented by the virtual cash isnot actually physically present or currently in hand.

Most, if not all, of the infrastructure needed to realize at least someembodiments of such virtual cash system using a wireless device ispresently in place, and only specific application software need be addedto realize specific desired features. Such system may be accomplished ina number ways. In one embodiment, a scanable bar code 16 may be providedon the display screen 14 of a wireless device 12, shown in FIG. 1. Asdescribed below, the bar code 16 provides information that can be usedor spent in place of actual cash. In another embodiment, a direct cashtransfer may be initiated via the user interface, such as a keypad 18 orwriteable surface (not shown) of the wireless device 12. In yet anotherembodiment, 802.11, Bluetooth, LAN capabilities, or other short rangeradio signal technique may be used in the wireless device 12 andappropriately equipped receiving equipment (not shown). Likewise,infrared (IR), or other modulated light signal technique, may be used inthe wireless device 12 and appropriately equipped receiving equipment(not shown).

One embodiment of a system, method, and apparatus described herein isshown in FIG. 1, to which reference is now made. The system 10 includesa point of sale (POS) location 20 of a merchant 22. The POS location 20may include a check-out station 24 having typical existing equipment,such as a bar code scanner 26 and control and display device 28associated therewith. The point of sale equipment may also include aserver 30 through which the check-out station 24, and other check outstations (not shown) at the POS 20, or other POSs that may also exist(not shown), can be operated.

A bar code system is described in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, sincemost wireless devices include a display that may be used directly, or,with minor modification, to display scanable bar code information, asdescribed below. Additionally, most POS equipment has the ability toread bar codes. Therefore, existing infrastructure may be used withoutthe need for new equipment in order to facilitate the data interchangerequired to complete cash transactions of the type described herein.

More particularly, normal POS card transactions may be processed througha service center, which may be operated by a credit/debit/bankingcompany, such as MasterCard, Visa, American Express, or the like. Theservice center may be, for example, a network service that wouldnormally serve to authorize credit card transactions. The service centeralso generally serves as a clearing and settlement service that wouldnormally transfer payment information between a merchant bank 32 and acustomer bank 36.

Card transactions are normally handled in two stages. The first stage isan approval stage in which the cardholder (not shown) presents the cardto the merchant 22 to pay for purchases. The merchant 22 then swipes thecard and enters the dollar amount of the purchase. Then, anauthorization request is transmitted to the merchant bank 32, sometimesreferred to as an “acquirer.” The acquirer is a financial institution ormerchant bank that contracts with the merchant 22 for card acceptanceand enables card payments from customers.

In the case of credit card transactions, the acquirer sends theauthorization request to a network 34 that routes the authorizationrequest to the customer bank 36, sometimes referred to as the “issuer.”The issuer is a financial institution that issues cards and maintains acontract with cardholders for repayment.

The issuer 36 then approves or declines the authorization request, andsends the approving or declining response back through the network 34 tothe acquirer 32. The acquirer 32 then sends the approving or decliningresponse back to the merchant 22. If the authorization has beenapproved, the process is allowed to continue to the second stage forclearing and settlement.

In the clearing and settlement stage, the merchant 22 deposits thetransaction receipt with the acquirer 32. The transactions may bedeposited using paper copies, but may be electronically transmitted forautomatic settlement. The acquirer 32 then credits the merchant'saccount, and electronically submits the transaction to the networkservice 34 for settlement. Existing network services 34 may, forexample, act as an authorization service for card transactions, asdescribed above, but as a clearing and settlement service, as well, totransfer payment information between parties. Typically, the networkservice 34 pays the acquirer 32 and debits the issuer account, thensends the transaction to the issuer 36. The issuer 36 then posts thetransaction to the cardholder's account.

Although the virtual cash system, method, and apparatus 10 describedherein might be used in such a credit/debit card environment, accordingto one embodiment the wireless device 30 can be used in a manner bywhich cash payments can be made or by which indicia that provide avirtual cash equivalent can be displayed for use in making direct cashpayments. In this embodiment, a substantial portion of the authorizationstage previously employed in the credit/debit card transaction describedabove can be minimized, or eliminated.

To this end, a preestablished cash purchase amount is employed. Thepreestablished cash purchase amount may be kept in an account record 38that associates a predetermined cash balance with the particularwireless device 12. The account record may be maintained by atransaction processing center 40, which may be operated in a similarmanner to existing purchase card processing centers. An example ofoperations performed by such purchase card processing center may be seenin U.S. Pat. No. 6,999,569, which is incorporated herein by reference.In some embodiments, the actual account record may be maintained in amemory of the wireless device itself or elsewhere; however, security maybe more easily monitored and maintained if the account record is managedby a separate processing center under the control of trusted financialinstitutions, as described herein.

Unlike purchasing cards, the wireless device 12 has a display 14 onwhich available cash information can be displayed in the form of barcode information 16 that can be read by a merchant's scanner equipment26. As mentioned, existing equipment may be employed with appropriatesoftware modifications. For example, the wireless device 12 may beequipped with an appropriate Application Programming Interface (API) toconfigure the wireless device 12 to hold the available cash informationin its memory and to display the required bar code information 16 on itsdisplay 14.

On the other hand, the equipment of the merchant 22 may be modified withappropriate software to recognize the transaction as a cash paymenttransaction. This embodiment enables the use of a transaction processingcenter 40 to operate in a manner similar to a purchasing cardtransaction, which allows the first stage credit card authorizationprocess described above to be bypassed.

More particularly, the bar code information 14 may typically contain,for example, account identification information, a security code, anavailable cash amount, or combination thereof. The accountidentification information may be, for instance, a PIN number selectedby the user, a phone number of the wireless device, some form of aMobile Identification Number (MIN), an Electronic Serial Number (ESN),identification information derived therefrom, an actual account number,or some other identifying information by which the account with thewireless device by which the transaction is to be made can be associatedwith the account record 38.

As indicated above, in addition to indicating the available cashinformation, the bar codes 16 may include security information. Thesecurity information may be, for example, a form of rolling code that ischanged with every transaction and which is be synchronized with a codeat the processing center to which the security information is sent to atleast in part, verify the point of sale transaction. The rolling codemay be employed as a security measure to protect both the customer andthe merchant.

In a typical operation, the rolling code may be sent with eachtransaction, but is updated after each transaction, so that it is notthe same from one transaction to the next. Such codes can be receivedand decoded by the processing center to verify that the code is a properone. In this way, if someone in possession of the wireless deviceattempted to foil the system by defeating the rolling code change, asecond transaction based upon the same rolling code as an earliertransaction would be rejected.

A suitable rolling code may be adapted, for instance, from a rollingcode of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,475, which isincorporated by reference herein. For greater security, both fixed androlling codes may be used, such as, for example, a code adapted fromcode arrangement of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,980,655, whichis incorporated by reference herein. The fixed portion of the securitycode may be provided, for example, by the customer's bank 36 whenconfirming the deposit of the predetermined funds at the customer'sdirection. Other security codes, rolling codes, or other type ofsecurity or verification technique may, of course, be equallyadvantageously employed.

The available cash amount may be simply a bar code indicting the amountof money that is contained in the account 38 that is available forspending.

In addition, other information may optionally be displayed on the screen14, depending upon the particular application being considered, the easeof use to be facilitated, and the space available on the screen. Forexample, a human readable form of the available cash may be displayedfor verification by the purchaser or by the merchant before attemptingto complete a transaction. Routing information to the customer bank 36may also be displayed, if needed. Other information may also bedisplayed, as well.

Thus, some or all of the bar code information may be used by theprocessing center 40 to verify the transaction, for example, to insurethat the security code checked out and sufficient funds exist in themobile device account to complete the transaction. The verificationcould be in the form simply as an “accept” indication if a sufficientamount of money exists in the account 38 for the purchase or a “reject”indication if the balance is overrun. On the other hand, theverification may return a number indicating the amount of money that canbe applied to the purchase, leaving the balance to be made up by thepurchaser.

Although the money balance information would be kept at the processingcenter, the actual amount would be established by the user. The moneybalance may be established, for example, by authorizing the customerbank 36 to move either the money itself to the processing center 40 tobe associated with the account 38 or by an authorization to withdraw themoney, as spent, from the customer bank 36 payable to the merchant bank32 to be credited to the merchant's account.

In one embodiment, money may be moved directly into the account 38 bythird party devices 41 who make direct payments, for example, from theirown respective wireless device cash accounts 38′ to the account 38associated with the wireless device 12. If desired, the account holdermay require that a maximum balance be maintained in the account 38 suchthat excess amounts deposited to the account 38 be refunded backdirectly into the account holder's account at the customer bank 36.

As mentioned, the wireless device 12 is configured so that cash paymentscan be made or so that indicia that provide a virtual cash equivalentcan be displayed for use in making cash payments. Consequently, if thewireless device is regarded as representing or carrying cash itself, assuggested above, one embodiment provides that no identification or othersort of user authentication need be required. That is, the actual moneyamount is associated with the wireless device, not the user. Because ofthis characteristic, carrying the virtual cash represented in thewireless device has some of the same risks as carrying cash itself.Thus, for example, if the wireless device is lost, a finder may be ableto spend the virtual cash just as if it were actual cash in a lostwallet or purse.

Nevertheless, some of the risks of carrying cash may be reduced. Forexample, if the wireless device is lost, there is a chance that the cashvalue can be preserved if the issuer 36 is notified before a findermakes purchases. In such cases, the account record 38 in the processingcenter may be modified to decline authorization for purchases made onthat account. Additionally, since the account 38 contains only a limitedpredetermined money amount, the extent of liability for a lost wirelessdevice is limited to that predetermined amount. The limit may be, forexample, established by the owner of the wireless device, who canbalance his own comfort level of risk to the amount of money that heplaces in his account, in the same manner as deciding how much actualcash he is comfortable carrying.

One embodiment of a method for making cash transactions of the typedescribed is illustrated in FIG. 2, to which reference is nowadditionally made. After a cash account 38 is set up with a processingcenter 40, the customer directs his bank 36 to credit the account with apredetermined amount of money, as shown in box 50. The customer's bank36 then credits the account 38 associated with the customer's wirelessdevice 12 according to the customer's direction, shown in box 52. Thismay be accomplished directly, or via direction to the processing center40 to credit the account with the deposited funds, as shown in box 54.

As shown in box 56, the customer's bank 36 then sends cash informationto the customer's wireless device via a wireless system 45 indicatingthat the predetermined amount of money has been transferred into thecustomer's account 38. The cash information may be stored, for example,in a memory of the customer's wireless device. As mentioned, as a partof the cash information, the customer's bank 36 may also include a banksecurity code that can be incorporated into a security code that may besent by the wireless device 12 to the processing center 40 to verify aspending transaction. Thus, when the processing center 40 updates thecustomer account information with the deposit information, as shown inbox 54, it may also associate the bank security code, if sent.

When the customer wishes to make a purchase, he first configures hiswireless device, as shown in box 62, to display the bar codes 16 on hisdisplay screen 14 required to be scanned. The wireless device 12 may beconfigured, for example, by running the API that accesses the memory inwhich the cash information has been stored to generate and display theappropriate bar codes 16 on the display 14 of the wireless device 12.

If a security code is also to be sent to assist in verifying thetransaction, in addition to indicating the available cash information,the bar codes 16 may be configured to include the security code. Thesecurity code may be generated as a part of the device configurationprocess, as shown in box 63.

While the customer is configuring his wireless device 12 to display thebar codes, as described above, the merchant 22 enters the amount thatthe customer is to pay, shown in box 64, for example, via the controland display device 28. The merchant then scans the bar code 16 displayedon the customer's wireless device 12, shown in box 66. As shown in box68, the merchant, or the merchant's equipment, then sends informationderived from the scanned bar code 16, together with the amount to bepaid, to the processing center 40, which, as shown in box 70, verifiesthe bar code 16 information, identifies the customer account 38 againstwhich the purchase is to be debited, and verifies that the requiredfunds are on deposit to complete the transaction.

The processing center 40 then notifies the merchant 22 according to thepredefined notification rules, for example, that there are sufficientfunds, that there are not sufficient funds, or that a certain fundsamount is available for the transaction. The merchant then completes thetransaction, shown in box 72.

Meanwhile, the processing center 40 settles the transaction by debitingthe amount to be paid from the customer's account 38 and depositing theamount to be paid in the merchant's account, as shown in box 74. Theprocessing center 40 then notifies the customer's bank 36 of thetransaction, shown in box 76. The customer's bank then wirelesslyupdates the wireless device information, as shown in box 78, via awireless network, such as the wireless network 45. For example, if theamount to be paid is less than the preauthorized cash amount, theremaining amount in the customer's account is determined, for instance,by the processing center, and the remaining balance is transmitted tothe wireless device for additional spending. If the entire amount hasbeen depleted, that fact may also be sent to notify the customer that heneeds to have additional money transferred to his wireless deviceaccount 38 if additional purchases are to be made.

At this juncture, it should be noted that although only one wirelessnetwork 45 has been shown, wireless networks are ubiquitous and thewireless device 12 can be virtually anywhere, while still being incommunication with the customer bank 36. Thus, one of the advantagesderived from this embodiment is that the overall use of the virtual cashapparatus and system of the type described is not geographicallylimited, so long as wireless service is available. Moreover, althoughthe notification transactions have been described as being conducted bythe customer's bank, it should be appreciated that such notificationtransactions may be performed by any other entity, such as theprocessing center 40 itself, or other entity that is tasked with theaccount update responsibility.

Virtual cash systems of the type described have a number of otheradvantages, in addition making cash purchases at diverse point of salelocations as described above. For example, as suggested above, using thekeypad 18 or other user interface of the wireless device, a user maytransfer money directly into a wireless device account of another user.Thus, for example, cash payments can be made directly to wireless deviceaccounts of casual service providers, such as domestic workers, babysitters, or the like. Children's allowance may be paid by transferringmoney directly to an account associated with their individual wirelessdevices. Additionally, preauthorized spending limits may be establishedby parents with regard to their children's wireless device accounts; forexample, children's spending may be limited to the purchase of food at aschool cafeteria, or to the purchase of particular discretionaryexpenses at certain authorized merchants. Other uses will be immediatelyapparent to those skilled in the art.

It should be noted that although a bar code implementation has beendescribed in detail, the account identification information, securitycode, and available cash amount indicators can be in other forms thatmay be recognized by the merchant's equipment. For example, analternative embodiment one or more of the indicators may be implementedwholly or partially by rfid radio links, which are well known, thattransfer data to proximity readers.

In yet another alternative embodiment, any or all of the accountidentification information, security code, and available cash amountindicators may be displayed on the display of the wireless device in apicture format which can be recognized, for example, as a series ofalphanumeric characters that can be manually entered by the merchant asa part of the sales transaction.

Although the invention has been described and illustrated with a certaindegree of particularity, it should be understood that the presentdisclosure has been made by way of example only, and that numerouschanges in the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted towithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, ashereinafter claimed.

1. A virtual cash system, comprising: an account record comprising anamount of money associated with a wireless device; and a transmitter forwirelessly transmitting to said wireless device available cashinformation corresponding to said account record, representing cash thatcan be spent directly from said wireless device in a transaction,wherein said available cash information comprises account identificationinformation, a security code and an available cash amount that may bespent in a transaction, wherein said account identification informationcorresponds to said account record, wherein said available cash amountcorresponds to said amount of money deposited in said system in saidaccount record, wherein said security code comprises a fixed codeportion provided by a bank to confirm a deposit of said amount of money,wherein said available cash information is operable to enableauthorization of said transaction.
 2. The system of claim 1 furthercomprising a system for receiving money information to be added to anddebited from said account record.
 3. The system of claim 1 furthercomprising a system in which money can be added to said account recordby a wireless direction from a third party.
 4. The system of claim 1further comprising a security code checking apparatus that can verify adifferent security code received from said wireless device with eachtransaction regarding said account record.
 5. The system of claim 1further comprising an account record update system for providing accountrecord update information to said transmitter for transmission to saidwireless device.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein said security codefurther comprises a rolling security code portion that changes aftereach transaction.
 7. A wireless device, comprising: a display screen; areceiver for wirelessly receiving available cash informationrepresenting cash that can be spent directly from said wireless device,wherein said available cash information comprises account identificationinformation, a security code and an available cash amount that may bespent, wherein said account identification information corresponds to anaccount record at a processing center, wherein said available cashamount corresponds to an amount of money deposited at said processingcenter in said account record, wherein said security code comprises afixed code portion provided by a bank to confirm a deposit of saidamount of money; and programming operable to generate an indicator ofsaid available cash information on said display screen sufficient toenable at least a portion of said available cash amount to be spent in atransaction, wherein said indicator is operable to enable saidprocessing center to authorize said transaction.
 8. The device of claim7 wherein said indicator comprises a bar code.
 9. The device of claim 8wherein said indicator further comprises human readable information. 10.The device of claim 9 wherein said human readable information includes anumber indicating said available cash amount.
 11. The device of claim 6wherein said indicator further comprises information that restrictsspending authorization to purchases at a particular point of sale. 12.The device of claim 11 wherein said information further comprisesinformation to restrict said spending authorization to a predeterminedmaximum cash amount.
 13. The wireless device of claim 7, wherein saidsecurity code further comprises a rolling security code portion thatchanges after each transaction.
 14. A virtual cash system for use with awireless device having a display screen and having a receiver forwirelessly receiving account information representing cash amounts thatcan be spent directly from said wireless device, comprising: an accountrecord comprising a deposited amount of money associated with saidwireless device; a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting availablecash information to said wireless device to enable a user determinedportion of said amount of money to be spent directly from said wirelessdevice as cash in a transaction, wherein said available cash informationcomprises account identification information, a security code and anavailable cash amount that may be spent, wherein said accountidentification information corresponds to said account record, whereinsaid available cash amount corresponds to said amount of money depositedin said account record, wherein said security code comprises a fixedcode portion provided by a bank to confirm a deposit of said amount ofmoney, wherein said available cash information is operable to enableauthorization of said transaction; and apparatus for receiving spendinginformation directing said user determined portion of said amount ofmoney be debited from said account record.
 15. The system of claim 14wherein at least some of said available cash information is displayed ina bar code on said display screen, and wherein said apparatus forreceiving spending information is a bar code reader.
 16. The system ofclaim 14 wherein at least some of said available cash information and aspent amount is wirelessly transmitted by said wireless device andwherein said apparatus for receiving spending information is an entitythat maintains said account record.
 17. The system of claim 14 whereinat least some of said available cash information is transmitted by an IRtransmitter on said wireless device, and wherein said apparatus forreceiving spending information is an IR receiver.
 18. The system ofclaim 14 wherein at least some of said available cash information istransmitted by a short range radio transmitter on said wireless device,and wherein said apparatus for receiving spending information is a shortrange radio receiver.
 19. The system of claim 18 wherein said shortrange radio transmitter and receiver are part of a system selected fromthe group consisting of an 802.11, a Bluetooth, and a LAN system. 20.The system of claim 14 further comprising apparatus for deliveringavailable cash update information to said transmitter indicating changesin said account record.
 21. The system of claim 14 wherein said wirelessdevice is further of the type that sends the security code furthercomprising a rolling security code portion with each spendingtransaction regarding said account record, and further comprisingsecurity code checking apparatus that can verify the security code sentby said wireless device.
 22. A method for operating virtual cash systemcomprising: wirelessly receiving, at a wireless device, available cashinformation corresponding to an amount of money deposited in an accountrecord associated with said wireless device to enable a user determinedportion of said amount of money to be spent directly from said wirelessdevice as cash in a transaction, wherein said available cash informationcomprises account identification information, a security code and anavailable cash amount that may be spent, wherein said accountidentification information corresponds to said account record, whereinsaid available cash amount corresponds to said amount of money depositedin said account record, wherein said security code comprises a fixedcode portion provided by a bank to confirm a deposit of said amount ofmoney, wherein said available cash information is operable to enableauthorization of said transaction; generating an indicator of saidavailable cash information by said wireless device to enable saidaccount record to be identified and debited for said user determinedportion of said amount of money; and wirelessly receiving, at saidwireless device, an updated available cash information comprising a newavailable cash amount after debiting said account record for saidtransaction.
 23. The method of claim 22 wherein said generatingcomprises displaying a bar code on a display of said wireless device.24. The method of claim 22 wherein said security code further enablesverification of said amount of money in said account record.
 25. Themethod of claim 24 wherein said security code comprises a rollingsecurity code portion that changes after each transaction.
 26. A methodfor operating a virtual cash system comprising: maintaining an accountrecord comprising an amount of money corresponding to a wireless device;wirelessly transmitting, to said wireless device, available cashinformation to enable a user determined portion of said amount of moneyto be spent directly from said wireless device as cash in a transaction,wherein said available cash information comprises account identificationinformation, a security code and an available cash amount that may bespent, wherein said account identification information corresponds tosaid account record, wherein said available cash amount corresponds tosaid amount of money deposited in said account record, wherein saidsecurity code comprises a fixed code portion provided by a bank toconfirm a deposit of said amount of money; receiving a direction from amerchant to debit a specified amount from said account record to performsaid transaction, said direction comprising information derived fromsaid available cash information received by said merchant from saidwireless device; debiting said specified amount from said account recordif said available cash information is verified; and crediting saidspecified amount to an account of said merchant if said available cashinformation is verified.
 27. The method of claim 26 further comprisingwirelessly transmitting, to said wireless device, updated available cashinformation comprising a new available cash amount after said specifiedamount has been debited from said account record.
 28. The method ofclaim 26 wherein said information derived from said available cashinformation received by said merchant further comprises informationreceived from a bar code scanned by said merchant from a display of saidwireless device.
 29. The method of claim 26 wherein receiving thedirection further comprises receiving the security code, and furthercomprising verifying said amount of money in said account record basedat least in part on said security code.
 30. The method of claim 29wherein said security code further comprises a rolling security codeportion that changes after each transaction.